Underneath The Mistletoe
by Heart of Summer
Summary: Harry is in deep trouble, caught underneath a mistletoe. With all the girls of Hogwarts breathing down his neck who will be the one to save him from a certain death or at least a trip to Hades in form of kisses? Read to find out!
1. Underneath the mistletoe

**Under the ****Mistletoe**

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**A/N: I came up with this idea last year but never actually got to write it down. I righted a few mistakes and hope****fully it's OK to read now. Enjoy!**

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Harry Potter woke up with a start as someone stepped on his foot. He opened his eyes only to receive a strict glance from one of his best friends, Hermione Granger. Ron Weasley, his other friend, gave up a loud snore as a little amount of spit running down his chin was slowly making a tiny pool on the bench. When Hermione saw this she made a slightly disgusted face and then returned to listen to Professor Binns' "vacuum-cleaner" reading.

Harry took for granted that Hermione had heard Binns say something important, or else she wouldn't have woken him up like that... probably. Hermione was a girl after all – they're pretty odd creatures. He could hear Ron's voice echoing in his head;

'_No one knows about girls, mate. They're bloody mental most of the time. One second crying, the next happy as if there was a sale on nail polish. What a bloke to do_?'.

He looked up and after a little while his ears started working again and he could finally make out the buzzing sound to actual words;

"...and Estuace from East was the wizard who started the company to transport blueberries from up north all the way to the east..." Harry turned his ears off again as he scribbled something like blueberries on his parchment. He gave Hermione a look that said '_are you happy now?_' and clearly she was, because she straightened a bit in the chair and gave a little nod before turning back to her own parchment. Harry sighed to himself and let his gaze wander around the classroom. The ghost professor was just turning a page in the big fading book he had in his indistinct hands, taking in an amount of air in a rattling breathe before getting back to the unfinished story.

Harry noted that most of the people in the room were still sleeping or at least lying down on their benches, peering out of the window and fantasizing about what they'd do if they ever came out of this class... But there was one exception (except, of course, Hermione); Parvati and Lavender who were giggling about something unimportant… as usual.

'I just hope it isn't another plan to make me fall in love with them' Harry thougth bitterly. Since his break up with Ginny even more girls than last year had tried to charm, hex or poison him into becoming their boyfriend.

His thoughts were interrupted by the clock and Binns arose as the class was starting to wake up. Susan Bones fell off her chair in surprise, which of course, the old ghost didn't even notice.

"Class dismissed", he just said hoarsely and went through the wall behind his desk, leaving the book he'd been carrying under his arm to fall onto the floor with a thud.

But even before the book had connected with it Hermione arose, so quickly that her book bag slipped off the desk and smashed into the stone floor as well. She hurriedly picked it up; casually throwing it over her left shoulder.

"Well, I'm off." She said keeping her eyes fixed at the front of his desk. He shot a glance at it but realized that he had not forgotten anything and that she was only averting his gaze. Hermione'd been a lot like this all year.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked curiously as he watched her gather the rest of her books, the ink, parchment and quill. Hermione bit her lip for a moment as she took her 'Hogwarts: A History' in a firm grip.

"To the library, of course", she said hesitantly, turned around quickly on the spot and rushed for door. "I'll see you at dinner Harry!" Harry let his eyes linger on Hermione's honey-brown curly-covered back for a moment before shaking his head and his eyes fell on Ron who was still asleep.

'Here we go', Harry thought ironically to himself and started to poke Ron's arm hard enough for it to irritate anyone. But Ron wasn't of course anyone. All he did was to give up a deep, dragon-with-a-terrible-cold-like snore. Harry rolled his eyes at this and smacked the back of his sleeping friend's head. Ron's face smashed onto the desk, but he didn't wake up. Instead he leaned on his cheek and gave up a moan.

"I'm sorry for this mate", Harry said at, sick of trying and then pointed his wand at the Weasley. Simply he said; 'Aqualitie'. A jet of water appeared from the tip his wand and spurted all over the redhead that woke up, groaning over being wet all over.

"What did you do that for?" He asked as Harry gathered his books.

"You wouldn't wake up." Ron got up, shook his hair so that water came all over Harry as well and they walked out of the classroom together.

"Well," he murmured "you didn't have to make me bloody soaking wet! I feel like a drenched Crookshanks!"

"Don't let..."

"...Hermione hear you say that, i know…" Ron said grumpily.

"Actually I was going to say Crookshanks", Harry chuckled. Ron just murmured something in response that Harry somehow managed to miss.

"I don't know what I should buy for her", Ron said as they got out through the big wooden doors.

"Well, any Christmas present is good I guess", Harry told him. "It's the thought that counts."

"Yeah right", Ron said rolling his eyes. "She'll kill me if I get her sweets and I can't imagine I'll be able to get anything else when its only two days notice." Harry gave up a 'hum' and they separated as Ron was heading to the owlery to send a greeting to his family.

Harry walked through the corridor which led up to the Gryffindor tower when he suddenly rammed into someone and dropped all of his belongings. He quickly bent down to save his potions homework from thumping feet, but suddenly noticed he was somewhat trapped in a circle. Harry quickly got up and let his eyes wander. Girls from all years were gathered around him, looking at him hungrily. With a shiver he thought of how much their gleaming eyes reminded him of the many houselves' heads that were hanging on the walls in Grimauld Place. Many of the girls were also frightening alike the faces with their pig noses and big ears. Harry's gaze went up to above him and noticed... well, he was standing underneath a mistletoe.

He quickly snapped back to reality as the girls all around him started closing in. His eyes went around hysterically, trying to find an opening... anything, _any way_ to get away from that stupid, stupid little twig floating in the air above him.

He suddenly saw a little space between a fourth year and Padma Patil. It was small but he took the opportunity, flinged himself trough the opening and rushed down the corridors. He could swear he heard a girl sounding an awful lot like Millicent Bullstrose shrieking;

"Get him!"

When Harry dared to take a look behind him, seeing how the girls were all crazily following his lead, running as fast as they could and... they were closing in on him.

'Oh. My. Great. Wizard. Of. Hogwarts. _Merlin_, this is crazy!' Harry thought as he picked up the pace, sacrificing his books to be able to run faster. He was desperately wishing for his broom since he was already getting tired. He had to think of a way to get their attention drawn to something else… but what?

He suddenly made an abrupt turn and ran straight into the library. His heart was thumping wildly in his chest as he ran towards Hermione. She was just putting some books in her book bag with her small, fine gestures at a table close to the door.

Harry rushed to her. His breathe was extremely heavy and his throat tight as he could spot the shadows of girls coming after him like monsters. The kind which hides under your bed late at night, when you are all too young to understand that they are not even supposed to exist. But they do, the most certainly do. He could hear someone yelling:

"In here!" As the thumping footsteps came closer Harry reached a shocked Hermione with her hand over her chest and he suddenly did the first thing that came into his mind.

"I'm so sorry for what I am about to do Hermione, but please trust me on this one!" Then he framed her face and bent down to push his lips to hers. He did it in the exact same time as the girls came around the corner. Hermione made a sweet and gentle sound in surprise that sounded like a mixture of laughter and a wondering 'hum'. Her book bag slid out of her grasp, but soon her arms seemed to regain their strength and wrapped around his neck. With her eyes closed she was kissing him back in a moment. Very _enthusiastically_ kissing him back.

Suddenly Harry didn't hear the girls anymore and his hands wrapped around Hermione's waist, pulling her closer to him. Hermione's fingers tangled in his hair as the group of girls watched them in amazement, wondering which one of them had managed to get to the famous Harry Potter first. And also thinking in greenish jealousy, wondering who could possibly make him so _very_ willingly on kissing her back just as passionately.

"Isn't that... _Hermione Granger_?" Romilda Vane asked suddenly with a hint of disgust and obvious discomfort in her voice. Clearly she'd still not given up on Harry.

"That know-it-all, she always gets everything she asks for!" Another girl cried out in frustration. A few other small comments were made (teachers pet, sweet as a hamster and bookworm among others) but neither of the two seemed to notice. But they couldn't deny that the boy who lived and the cleverest witch of her age's lips fitted like two bits in a puzzle.

When Harry's hands were tangled up in her honey brown curls and she was literally clinging to him, close to trembling as they kissed, they all agreed that they'd had seen more than enough. Silently muttering even more humiliating things under their breath that the two friends couldn't hear, they one by one dropped out of the library. Soon the only two who were still left in there were Harry and Hermione.

As soon as they noticed that they were in fact all alone (which had been quite a while after the people had left and both of them was ignoring the fact that they'd actually pulled away at the lack of oxygen) they let go of one another and glanced longingly at each other's hot faces.

Harry studied Hermione's swollen lips, glossy hazel eyes, rosy cheeks, messy (more than usual) hair and also noticed that her robes were quite untidy. She seemed to be suffering from some kind of strange chill since she was pretty much shaking and she seemed to be having quite an effort standing up properly. Her knees were trembling and she kept blinking as if she was trying very hard to be waking up from a deep sleep.

Harry ran his fingers trough his raven black, messy hair and Hermione let her own fingers trail trough her mane of bushy curls. Then she swallowed and Harry could finally manage to break the uneasy silence.

"Er... thank you."

"You're welcome", was Hermione's breathless response to this. Then they both nodded slightly and turned their back against each other. Harry went straight into a bookshelf and Hermione moaned in pain as her knee went straight into the bench. They found each others gaze and both cheeks turned instantly red.

"I just..." Harry said with a little hoarseness in his voice and since he was very flustered, he was not able to get something else out. Hermione nodded and made an odd movement with her hands in the air surrounding them both, not too long ago breathed by them through the other.

"Yeah, and... a-and I was just, um..." she noticed her book bag and Harry nodded understandingly.

"Yeah, of course."

"Mhm." Hermione took her book bag and with a last nod they both went in different directions.

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**A/N: Did you like my Christmas gift. I'd like to hear it. ****I mean... it's almost Christmas.**

**I am planning on making a sequel, I just never warned people because I was sure it would take me a long time. I'm quite busy with my new school and everything. So no promises, but maybe before Christmas. **


	2. Consequences of a Christmas tradition

**- The consequences of a (really stupid) Christmas tradition - **

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**A/N:**** I made a sequel! Personally, I have no idea how I feel about it. Though some of my jokes even made me giggle. So maybe you'll enjoy it! Have some great reading!**

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She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she turned the page in the old book she was reading. Her eyes slowly wandered across the page with a smoothness that made him slightly light-headed. Her fingers lazily stroke Crookshanks that was lying on the arm rest. Her hands moved over the red coat with such elegance that his heart started to beat loudly in his chest. Harry was used to this. This was after all what he enjoyed doing most except Qudditch. Watching her.

Watching her eat, watching her sleep, watching her talk, watching her walk... but of all the categories this was his favourite. Watching her read.

He'd always loved it, he'd just never really thought about it before. Now though, he was suddenly very aware of her every movement. Hermione Granger filled up every little place of his vision and every little inch of his mind. She'd done that ever since two days ago... and now it was the evening before Christmas.

Why did she do this? She was bloody teasing him; that was exactly what she was up to! Teasing and torturing! It wasn't fair. It wasn't his fault that he'd been forced to kiss her... It wasn't! Harry couldn't help that pretty much all of the girls in school had been chasing after him like centaurs chase after a mare in heat! It had been the easiest -_only _way!

Okay, so maybe he could've hid or something in those lines... But he hadn't come up with clever ideas like that in those very haunting seconds.

He'd just... He'd wanted to -No! He hadn't _wanted_ to kiss Hermione Granger, _no way_... um, well... maybe?

Hermione soon shut the book which woke up Harry from his deep, worrying thoughts and got up to his side.

"Can we go down to the kitchen?" She asked with a hint of a smile. "I want to say merry Christmas to the house elves! It's ten past twelve so it's like Christmas morning already!" Harry looked up and saw his friend looking at him excitedly. Her eyes had a flicker of light in them as if a star had been trapped inside of her, and it made him breathless. After a few seconds, he realized he'd been staring and nodded slightly.

"O-okay", he breathed and stood up.

They walked quietly through the corridors.

Neither Harry nor Hermione said anything. Harry didn't know if there was anything to say, really, and felt weird thinking so hard about the honestly quite idiotic matter.

"Have you made any Christmas presents to them this year? To the elves, I mean." he asked casually. "I haven't seen you working on any…" Hermione gave him a side glance and smiled a little.

"No." Then she frowned slightly. "They refuses to accept them, so I thought I'll just leave them be. It feels horrible though, that they're not even getting a break over the Holiday…" Harry smiled to himself. Good girl Hermione, you finally read the letter attached to the owl! But then of course, Hermione wasn't the smartest witch of her age for nothing. When it came to houselves, though, she could be as blind and clever as a Thestral's behind.

"Both them and the rest of Hogwarts like it that way" Harry mumbled before being able to stop himself. He received one of her famous glares and hurriedly righted himself. "I mean, otherwise we would have no good food. Besides, they love their job Hermione."

"I know they do…" She seemed to be in deep thought, so Harry kept quiet. Hermione loved everything about doing her homework and studying extra, too. For a second Harry wondered if she was reminded of herself in the houselves. Maybe that was what she wanted for herself: to be taken care of properly by someone. To be needed and wanted, and always be first place. It wasn't enough at scoring highest on every exam – it was nothing really, compared to being number one in the depths of someone's heart. But then again, Harry was no master mind and he could only draw his lines from how well he knew his best friend, Hermione. Which really wasn't, he realized, as well as he wanted to.

The stone walls whispered around them, trying to warn Harry of the fears to come, but of course Harry was too naïve to be suspicious when walking the corridors of his home. Anyway, Harry could speak parseltounge and not with walls, so it might actually be normal for him to ignore this.

"Umm… Harry, look…" Hermione voice was full of warmth, but disturbed by her uncertainty. "Have I done something wrong?"

Harry turned his gaze towards her but Hermione kept studying the walls, and was at that very moment stealing a glance at one of the paintings of a man scratching his nose with his wand. She stopped and looked as the wand let out a rain of blue stars that flew up into his big, red nose. The poor wizard fell off his chair and dispersed from sight, probably laying somewhere underneath his desk.

"I mean," Hermione kept on. "The girls have been avoiding me like I have the plague, every single girl - except Ginny." She sighed. "This morning Julie from Ravenclaw actually snorted at me when I asked her how she'd done on her Potions essay after I'd helped her!" Hermione looked like she was close to tears. Her hands were tightly intertwined and she clenched them together so tightly that her fingers became white.

"Even you have been cold towards me, so I expect to get some answers!" She turned to look him straight in the eyes. "Has this anything to do with what you did in the library the other day?" Harry swore to himself. Hermione was too smart, sometimes so clever of a being that he had a hard time handling it. He looked away from her fiery eyes and tried to come up with an answer.

"Well, yeah. It was this mistletoe…" Hermione looked taken aback for a moment, and then everything seemed to come clear inside of her. Her eyes looked very vulnerable, and then disappointment seemed to wash over her. She tried her best to collect herself, but all she could get out was a small, very soft:

"Oh."

"Well, you see… I-I was stuck underneath that stupid mistletoe and realized that every one of my fan girls were surrounding me and…" Hermione stared back at him.

"Oh." The sound was horribly quiet, wasn't it? Not like the voice of Hermione at all. Harry hated it.

She turned to start walking again, keeping her voice sounding happy but Harry could hear that it was at the point of breaking.

"Well that explains a lot! Merlin." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I was only helping out a friend in need. Well, that's what friends are for, aren't they?"

"Look Hermione…" Harry reached out with a hand on her arm to stop her. She turned around to face him with tears brimming in her eyes. _Why was she crying?_

"Um... Mione, it wasn't at all like that. I was relieved that you-" Suddenly Harry was disturbed by a small swishing sound and looked up to see something taken from one of his nightmares. There he was, in a possible (he wasn't sure yet) fight with Hermione and suddenly it appears again. The twig from hell that unfortunately is never burning. The biggest pain of Christmas. They were caught underneath the mistletoe.

Harry's hand slid off Hermione as he continued to stare, and then Hermione looked up as well. Upon seeing it she almost fainted on the spot and drew in a shaky breath.

"Burn in dragon's breath" she mumbled to herself.

"What the…? Pull my beard! It's stalking me, that's what it does!" Harry cried out after a few seconds of recollecting himself. "I'm going to kill the muggle who came up with this idiotic idea."

"Actually, I believe it was a wizard." Hermione said matter-of-factly, but in a much strangled voice. Harry turned to her. She looked furious, and when she turned her gaze to him he took a step back in fright.

"This is _your_ entire fault, you idiot! You were _relieved_ that you could kiss _me_?" She shot at him. "You stupid, moronic, idiotic-"

"Actually," Harry said just as angrily "I was not the only one walking and not looking where I was going." At these words Hermione pulled in air like a giant frog and her chest heaved in anger. They never argued about stupid stuff like this, but this time it seemed to be very serious.

"You brick head!" she spluttered, pulling out her wand. "How dare you? I was concentrating on _you_-"

"No, I was concentrating on you! You were busy with fighting the urge to cry just like Cho! What is it with me and crying girls under Mistletoes, huh?!" Hermione looked taken aback for a second.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh really? Then why did you almost break when I told you I merely kissed you because of this stupid thing?!" Hermione's cheeks were growing flushed and for once, Harry noticed the changes in a girl. But of course this was Hermione – he'd always noticed her. All through the years he could remember himself making small notes in his head of snowflakes in her hair, bright looking eyes and her blushing. Though this was the first time he'd ever tried to say it out loud – and why he was confronting her about it he didn't know.

He hadn't even realized it yet, but it was slowly going up for him. How could he have been such a moron? He was in love with Hermione! And for some reason he had to come clean about it. He wanted nothing more than for her to love him back. So he went on what he wanted to believe and prayed to Dumbledore there up in heaven that he would get his biggest wish to finally come true.

"Wake up and stop dreaming, Harry. Aren't you supposed to be good at occlumency by now? You should be able to block out your silly daydreams."

She'd crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from him and everything. Harry felt the anger crouch like a tiger ready to jump its pray at any given moment – she couldn't just turn away! He took a step closer, staring at her and nothing else.

"I have tons of fan girls who barely know me – but you do." His voice was reasoning now. "Hermione, your reaction was weird when I told you. Besides, if I'm not mistaking, you sure were good at answering my kiss when you didn't even know the real reason for it."

"Shut up about your stupid fan girls, Harry. And don't flatter yourself." Harry grew softer. He could hear her becoming it too.

"But Hermione… that kiss. I wanted to-" Suddenly Hermione snapped.

"That was my first kiss Harry!" Harry became flabbergasted as Hermione stared him down. Her wand did hang loosely in her hand, but the tip glowed as if it was warning him that she could attack at any given moment.

"And it might not mean much to you or any other of the guys for that matter, but for a girl it means a lot. My _very. First. Kiss_." She had drawn so close in her burst of emotions that she was now standing merely inches from him. When Harry nodded she leaned back and looked at him.

"But that's not the point, Harry. My very first kiss was wonderful." Harry couldn't help but smile. Firstly, she had stopped screaming. Secondly, she had realized he had at the least a major crush on her. And thirdly and foremost, she was still trying to make him feel better by saying: "I still hold on to the answer I gave you when you'd kissed Cho." Her cheeks gave once again away a tiny shade of pink. "You're indeed a very good kisser Harry."

And then Harry realized that this was not at all a way of trying to make him feel better. Obviously, it was her way of saying that she'd enjoyed that kiss. Because last time he'd checked with his memories, she'd said he wasn't a bad kisser. Not that he sure was a great one. Then Ron would've really had something to get his pants in a twist for.

"Well… you are too." He grinned at her, his boyish grin that made Hermione look back at him intently. Harry wondered what could've possibly changed her near-to-tears expression into this, which was fighting hard to not smile back at him?

"And to answer your question from before, I know. I really should learn how to block out my erotic daydreams, shouldn't I?" This was not like him to say, but it made her laugh and swat his arm, so he didn't really mind.

"Mr. Potter, I do believe you're turning into Dirty Draco," she said with a hint of amusement and a lot of disgust.

Harry was still in shock, since he had believed that Hermione must've at least kissed Neville, McLaggen, Krum and Ron, but he didn't bother to ask her. Instead he said casually:

"Hmm. So now we're forced to do this again."

"Do what?" Hermione asked curiously.

"The mistletoe" Harry reminded her a little impatiently.

"Oh, but there's no one here but us," Hermione mumbled. "We don't have to."

Harry shook his head as an answer. Hermione looked back at him, frowning. She had no idea what was coming next.

"But I want to kiss you again" Harry said without thinking. And maybe, somehow, that was a good thing. He could feel his cheeks turning bright red by the words, but Hermione only looked pleased. And when Hermione slowly got closer and killed the last inches between their well-matching lips, Harry felt the smile almost ruining his possibility of tongue kissing her back. But just almost.

At the moment the two had stopped screaming a little irritating noise, sounding much like a fly buzzing into a window a few hundred times, had started and had been growing stronger every since. And now, it finally exploded.

"SO BOOORING!" Peeves cried as he made himself visible and rattled the mistletoe in his hands, but neither of the two beneath noticed his appearance. "Typical Potter, ruining all the fun" he whined to himself as Harry and Hermione seemed to be trying to eat each others faces up.

In the urge to throw something their way, but lacking the material, Peeves angrily threw the mistletoe at them. Harry and Hermione broke apart, breathing heavily as Harry started taking the twig out from Hermione's bushy curls. They heard the songs peeves sang.

_"Harry Potty, HP Blaaadeeer, Harry eat–my–face–muggleborn Potter! Always destroying the fun for little me, I wish he could just let the trouble be… Eat the twig instead Potter!"_

Harry made a movement to go after him with wand raised, but Hermione's hand stopped him.

"Leave him be, Harry" she said with real stars in her eyes.

"I was going to thank him, Mione" Harry mumbled as he drew closer. Hermione smiled widely, closed her eyes and kissed him again. Harry sighed softly into her as he cupped her face in his hands. Hermione's hands gripped his cloak tightly. And down the corridors you could now hear Peeves start screaming at the top of his lounges:

"**STUDENTS OUT OF BED, MAKING OUT ON THE FIFTH FLOOR JUST OUTSIDE THE DADA CLASSROOM! GIRLS OF HOGWARTS, YOUR PRINCE IS MAKING OUT WITH THE FILTHY MUGGLE-BORN**!"

And all of Hogwarts woke up with a start. Everyone except Ron, who stirred in his sleep, oblivious of the fact that at that very moment Harry and Hermione were out on their own adventure, escaping Filch, his cat and every other teacher or fan girl of Harry's, looking for a place to spend the night together, undisturbed.

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**A/N:**** This may not have been what you were expecting, but I wrote a sequel at least ;P**

**If you like it better than the first, or if you even like it (?) Please do tell me. I love comments. They always make my day!**


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